Areas and Perspectives

Question 1

What are the defining principles of the social area?

Answer 1

-All human behaviour occurs in a social context and is influenced by the actual, imaged, or implied presence of others
-Other people and the environment influence our behaviour and thought processes
-External influences make more of an impact than internal (situational > dispositional)

Question 2

What are the strengths of the social area?

Answer 2

• Helps us understand how behaviour can be influenced by other people and the situation you are in
  -Provides explanations for behaviour so is useful
  -Supports the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate
  -Prefers research being conducted in natural environments

Question 3

What are the weaknesses of the social area?

Answer 3

-Deterministic
-Reductionist - underestimates the power of individual differences (eg. some people will never obey)
-Often raises ethical issues through deception or lack of withdrawal
-Snapshot studies

Question 4

What are the defining principles of the cognitive area?

Answer 4

-Internal mental processes are important in understanding behaviour
-Humans are like information processors; input, process, output. The output/behaviour is due to the mental processing
-Mental processing can be tested scientifically

Question 5

What are the strengths of the cognitive area?

Answer 5

-Scientific and provide accurate unbiased data
-Quantitative data
-Useful - lots of practical applications eg. when interviewing witnesses, the police should avoid using leading questions

Question 6

What are the weaknesses of the cognitive area?

Answer 6

-Reductionist ignoring biological causes of behaviour
-Usually studied through laboratory experiments which may lack realism and ecological validity
-The only way to study mental processes is through self report or the behaviours that are shown because of it

Question 7

What are the defining principles of the developmental area?

Answer 7

-Interested in the psychological processes of development. Change and development is an ongoing process which continues throughout our lifetime
-Behaviour may be learned (nurture) or innate (biological/nature)
-Early experiences affect later development
-Development may happen in predetermined stages

Question 8

What are the strengths of the developmental area?

Answer 8

-Useful - gives explanations to why people demonstrate different intellects, social skills, and emotions and can help us to raise children
-Adds to the nature/nurture debate
-Participants can be studied in their natural environment
-Easy to apply to everyday life as we are constantly learning and developing due to maturation

Question 9

What are the weaknesses of the developmental area?

Answer 9

-Theories about pre-determined stages of development are too rigid
-Focuses mainly on childhood development and tends to neglect how adults mature
-Behaviour determined by upbringing, so suggests less free will
-Studied can take a lot of time if done longitudinally
-Ethics as children can’t give informed consent

Question 10

What are the defining principles of the biological area?

Answer 10

-All thoughts, feelings, and behaviours have a biological cause
-All that is psychological is first biological
-Human genes have adapted our physiology and behaviour to the environment
-Psychology should investigate the brain, nervous system, and genes.
-Assumes our behaviour is caused by chemical and physical changes in the body
-Nature over nurture

Question 11

What are the strengths of the biological area?

Answer 11

-Very scientific and objective
-Strong counter argument to nurture debate
-Research methods are very reliable (lab experiments)

Question 12

What are the weaknesses of the biological area?

Answer 12

-Reductionist as it ignores other explanations of behaviour such as the environment
-Does not explain how the mind and body interact
-Research methods lack ecological validity
-Can be difficult to interpret physiological measurements such as MRI scans

Question 13

What are the defining principles of the individual differences area?

Answer 13

-Individuals differ in their behaviour and personal qualities so no one is average
-Everyone is genetically unique and this uniqueness is displayed through their behaviour. So everyone behaves differently
-All behaviour can be measured
-Behaviour is the result of dispositional factors

Question 14

What are the strengths of the individual differences area?

Answer 14

-Allows psychologists to learn more about human behaviours because all behaviours are studied
-Allows psychologists to measure differences between individuals in qualities such as personality, intelligence, and memory
-Studied are often high in ecological validity as they often take place in natural environments
-Allows both qualitative and quantitative data to be gathered
-Practical/beneficial applications for treatment

Question 15

What are the weaknesses of the the individual differences area?

Answer 15

-Research methods used may not be objective, so open to bias lowering the external validity (case studied)
-It creates divisions between people because some are seen as different
-Difficult to define and measure things such as personality and intelligence
-Ethics - protection from psychological harm of being called different
-Socially sensitive

Question 16

What are the defining principles of the Behaviourist perspective?

Answer 16

-Psychology is a science and the only way to be objective is to observe/measure behaviour (ie. the mind is like a black box, we can’t see the processing)
-All behaviour is learned through Social learning or classical/operant conditioning
-Behaviour is caused by external influences
-When we are born, the mind is a blank slate

Question 17

What is social learning theory?

Answer 17

Learning through observation and replication. Can only learn if you have: attention, retain, replicate, and motivated. Need a role model

Question 18

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 18

Learning through consequence (ie. positive/negative reinforcement and positive/negative punishment)

Question 19

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 19

Learning through association. An unconditioned stimulus has an unconditioned response so when a neutral stimulus is brought in, the subject is conditioned to have a conditioned response where the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus

Question 20

What are strengths of the behaviourist perspective?

Answer 20

• Very scientific and usually under controlled experimental methods
• Strong counter argument to the nature side of the debate
• Has many practical applications

Question 21

What are the weaknesses of the behaviourist perspective?

Answer 21

• Deterministic
• Reductionist as it ignores mental processes such as moods, thoughts, and feelings
• Lacks ecological validity
• Blames parents so is socially sensitive

Question 22

What are the defining principles for the psychodynamic perspective?

Answer 22

• Behaviour is influenced by the interaction of drives and forces within the personality
• Behaviour comes from the unconscious personality (iceberg analogy)
• Personality is shaped by relationships, experience and conflict over time, particularly during childhood
• The personality is made up of the Id (pleasure), the ego (controls the Id), and the superego (morality)

Question 23

What are some of the defence mechanisms Freud put forward?

Answer 23

• Denial
• Repression - pushing thoughts and bad memories into their unconscious
• Regression - going back to a younger, childlike, immature, way of behaving
• Displacement - redirecting an emotion away from the object or person that caused it
• Reaction formation - where the ego takes feelings that are unacceptable and makes the conscious feel strongly opposite

Question 24

What were the 5 psychosexual stages of development?

Answer 24

Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital

Question 25

What are the strengths of the pscychodynamic perspective?

Answer 25

-Allows psychologists to suggest causes of mental disorders
- Allows psychologists to suggest why individuals behave in ways they cannot easily explain or understand
- Case studied provide rich, detailed data

Question 26

What are the weaknesses of the psychodynamic perspective?

Answer 26

• Studied often use unrepresentative samples
• Research methods may not be objective and are open to bias
• Based on concepts that are difficult to test and verify scientifically.